Govt nixes and replaces PSC’s UG Council nominee

…rejects business representative on UG Council

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) on Friday condemned the intervention and subsequent seizing of the Golden Arrowhead by ranks of the Guyana Police Force in Corriverton, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), as the Town Council was preparing to hoist it on the eve of Guyana’s 48 Republic Anniversary.
The PSC, in a statement, said that raising of Guyana’s flag is a national event honoured and respected by everyone, irrespective of political association among other things.
On February 22, Police shut down the Corriverton Town Council’s annual flag raising ceremony, claiming that permission was not granted for the hosting of the event. However, Mayor Krishnand Jaichand said permission was never required, and the real reason the event was stopped is because the Council refused to have Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan deliver the feature address.
Jaichand stated that the council had written the Communities Minister requesting his presence, but he never responded; and to ensure the programme went, on the council invited Opposition Parliamentarian Adrian Anamayah – a resident of the Region — to deliver the feature address. They also agreed to host Ramjattan, but made it clear that he would not be the feature speaker despite being pressed by Bulkan, the Regional Executive Officer and Social Protection Minister Amna Ally.
Ally would later admit to blocking the event, noting that flag raising ceremonies are national events organized by the Government.
The PSC said that, over the years, Government has always been represented at the ceremonies, and that the incident at Corriverton was an unfortunate one.
“According to the facts at our disposal and reported at some length in all of the media, the Corriverton Town Council quite properly invited Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan to represent the Government and be the Guest Speaker at the ceremony, but the Minister, quite wrongly, neglected to respond to the invitation,” the PSC noted.
The Private Sector body noted that when the Mayor received a call from Ally, the matter should have ended there, and the Corriverton Council should have accepted the Government’s representative.
“The Corriverton Council preferred to put politics before accepted national behaviour and convention, and refused to accept the Government’s appointment to speak at the Ceremony. A disgraceful and unacceptable series of events followed, in which — most unfortunately — the Police were clearly directed to intervene and prevent the flag raising ceremony from taking place on the specious excuse that prior permission had not been sought from the Police,” the statement read.
The PSC urged the leaders to put aside politics and work towards the nation’s interest.

Dissatisfied
Additionally, the Private Sector representative organisation expressed its dissatisfaction with the business representative on the Council of the University of Guyana.
PSC claims that the Education Ministry’s Permanent Secretary wrote to it requesting a nominee, and the head of the Consultative Association of Guyanese Industries, Samuel Goolsarran, was nominated to sit on the new council.
However, the ministry appointed Allison Butters-Grant as the business representative, and the body is calling for this to be rectified forthwith.